Children and Nature

Since I started my summer internship as an interpretive ranger at Great Sand Dunes National Park I've been thinking about what it is we actually do here.  Many people don't really know when I say I'm in "interpretive ranger," but it's really pretty simple in literal terms: we interpret nature to the general public in the form of nature walks, presentations, and other ranger-led activities.  In a more broad sense, however, our job is much more than that.

The opportunities are pretty endless when you think about it.  We have the chance to meet someone who may have only come here with the idea that they were going to look at the scenery and inspire them to actually go out and experience it.  We can impart knowledge that may make someone's interaction with nature a little less scary.  We both educate and inspire.

Personally, I'm empowered by this knowledge, but in all the programs that I do, I rarely make the adults of the group my main focus.  They're not really the ones I'm eager to reach, the kids are.  The adults, in my reasoning, made the effort to come to a national park so they already appreciate and recognize nature's many wonders.  The kids are probably just along for the ride and so my goal is to make their experience as wonderous as possible.  I want them to remember how much they loved going camping or spending time in the woods and want to protect those spaces for their children as well.

Reaching the children is kind of a theme here in the office and so I've been thinking and reading a bit about it.  I've found that there are many people who are advocating for more children to be exposed to nature.  Not only would it make children become less sedentary and more active, but apparently there have been some links drawn between a lack of nature and increases in problems such as "obesity, attention disorders, depression and stress," (1).  Even more amazing, "September 2004 study published in APHA’s American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that exposure to natural settings helped reduce the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children," (2).

This makes a lot of sense to me.  All through middle school and high school I was under a serious amount of stress, but when I watched my friends buckle under it, I never felt as if I was in any trouble of doing the same.  The only difference I could find was that I had my horses and could lose myself for a couple hours in the woods behind the barn if I had had a really stressful day.  Nature has always been a calming influence for me, a place where I could wear off my energy or just sit and think in silence.  I could never imagine my childhood without the experiences I've had in nature and I wouldn't want my child to not have those same memories. 

Author Richard Louv made an excellent point in the second article I cite in this post.  He said, "'Studies have shown that people who love the environment said they had great outdoor experiences as kids... If that ends, where will our future environmental stewards come from?'” 

1: http://www.usaweekend.com/07_issues/071118/071118healthy-kids-report.h tml
2:http://www.apha.org/publications/tnh/archives/2007/Oct07/Nation/Kids andNatureNation.htm